White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre proved Friday during the daily press briefing that she will only take so much crap before she completely shuts down dolts like Peter Doocy of Fox News when they continue to ask the same question after they’ve already gotten an official response.
When Doocy was called on today, his question was, “Why is the Biden administration building a border wall in Arizona?”
Jean-Pierre responded:
“We are not, we’re not finishing the wall. We are cleaning up the mess the prior administration left behind in their failed attempt to build a wall. And I just want to be very, very clear here: On day one we returned the money, the $8 billion the prior administration took from our military. We gave that back to the military, for military families, for schools for bases. That’s what that money was being used. That’s what it was taken away from. And so again, what we’re doing is cleaning up the mess that the prior administration has done.”
Asked and answered, and yet Doocy pressed:
“But President Biden when he was a candidate said, ‘there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.’ So what changed?”
For the second time, Jean-Pierre replied:
“We are not finishing the wall.”
And yet, Doocy came back with the very same question, and he added a fact-free conspiracy theory:
“If walls work in that part of Arizona, is this, is the administration trying to get migrants to cross somewhere else, like in Texas? What, what is the point?”
Clearly getting exasperated (and who wouldn’t?), Jean-Pierre told Doocy:
“We are not finishing a wall. We are cleaning up the mess that the prior administration made. We are trying to save lives. This is what, this is what the prior administration left behind that we are now cleaning up.”
Doocy refused to accept the answer and plodded ahead:
“By finishing the wall is this –”
“We are not finishing the wall,” Jean-Pierre told him, smirking as she did so.
“By filling in – finishing –” Doocy began for the umpteenth time.
“We are not finishing,” Jean-Pierre told him.
That led Doocy to try and add racism to the mix:
“By filling in, is this, is this racist? Because in 2019, when the former guy was proposing a wall, you said that it was his ‘racist’ wall. So how is this any different? I’m just having a hard time understanding how this is any different.”
Jean-Pierre:
“I’m not even sure how you get to your first question, to this question that you just asked me. I will say this –”
“A border wall –” Doocy blurted.
And that’s when Jean-Pierre dropped the hammer on the Fox correspondent:
“I’m answering your question. A border wall is ineffective use of taxpayer dollars. So it’s ineffective of taxpayer dollars – dollars that actually went to the military that the last administration, the prior president took from the military, which took away from schools, which took away from military bases. That’s what that money that he pulled away from, to build this wall that he wanted, that is ineffective, by the way, which I just said. Just recently, CBP reported that new bollard fencing along the southwest border was breached 3272 times between fiscal year of 2019 and 2021, requiring $2.6 billion in repairs. It’s ineffective. We are not finishing the wall, we are cleaning up the mess that the last administration made. Okay?”
Karine Jean-Pierre’s predecessor, Jen Psaki, taught her well. And it’s always fun to see Peter Doocy get put in his place.
Here’s the video:
